About Us

More than a third of the world’s population lives on $1.25 a day or less, and about 22,000 children die every day from conditions associated with extreme poverty.

Yet these deaths are preventable. We have the medical and technological resources to put an end to this suffering, and the costs of treatment for these diseases are often very low—as little as 50 cents per child.

The Life You Can Save was founded as an advocacy and educational outreach organization to raise awareness for the more than one billion men, women, and children who live in extreme poverty. We believe that everyone should have lack access to clean water and proper nutrition, and should be able to live healthy lives free from preventable diseases such as malaria or parasitic infections.

Each year, we publish a list of the world’s best charities that aid the global poor. Each of our sixteen recommended charities has a demonstrated record of effectively combating the causes and the symptoms of global poverty. Historically, every dollar we spend on outreach and education moves an additional three to four dollars to our effective charities.

In his books The Life You Can Save (Random House, 2009) and The Most Good You Can Do (Yale, 2015), our founder and Princeton ethicist Peter Singer argues that extreme poverty can be eliminated—but only if each of us chooses to do our part.

We endeavor to change the culture of philanthropy by making effective giving a societal expectation and qualifier for a moral and just life. We want unnecessary luxuries to become anti-status symbols. We want to widen our collective understanding of community to include not just our immediate circle of family, friends, and local institutions. We envision a global community that feels responsibility toward the needy and deserving all over the world.

Each of us can help save a child’s life. Join our thousands of supporters who have taken our public pledge to give a percentage of their yearly income to effective charity.

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About Us

The Life You Can Save is a movement of people fighting extreme poverty. We hold that an ethical life involves using some of our wealth and resources to save and improve the lives of those less fortunate than us.

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